Stars News

Razor With and Edge: 50

It’ll be the 5th time he reaches that magical plateau – an accomplishment that has become rare both for OV and all others.

That wasn’t the case back in 1993 when there were fourteen 50-goal scorers in the NHL. Names like Hull, Mogilny, Selanne, and Lemieux, plus ten others! To match that number you’d have to go from Alex Ovechkin’s first 50-goal campaign in 2006 thru his about-to-be-notched 2014 fifty, (which will likely be scored sometime in March), and in those eight non-lockout seasons, only eight different guys were able to score 50 goals.

From 1945 to 1973 there were also fourteen 50-goal seasons registered. They were the first fourteen ever recorded, and they, like the aforementioned Ovechkin to Ovechkin run, were scored by only eight players. Rocket Richard started it, Rick MacLeish of the Flyers concluded the segment, and Bobby Hull, like Ovechkin, was responsible for five of them.

Only one Dallas Star has produced a 50-goal season: the incomparable Mike Modano. He did it in April of 1994 and scored that 50th on Curtis Joseph in a 9-5 triumph over the St. Louis Blues (Reminder: March is “Modanopalooza” in Starsland).

The take away from this skate down memory lane is that the NHL needs to find a way to produce more 50-goal scorers. 50-G men grab headlines. They stick out. They endure. Chicks dig ‘em. They excite.